Pete Tedrow from The Starfish Throwers visits Winder Cultural Arts Center, Morris Museum of Art, Wallace State Community College

From Impact Producer Pete Tedrow of The Starfish Throwers:


Winder, Georgia - Sunday, March 15, 2015
The second stop on our Southern Circuit Tour, and my first as Impact Producer, landed me in the lovely small town of Winder, Georgia. The Winder Cultural Arts Center is a true gem. Cultural Arts Director Don Wildsmith and film programmer Christopher Childs of Wilder Television make an excellent team.

The Q&A led Christopher after the film showed just how engaged and well-versed Winder audiences are with documentaries and independent film in general.  It was a special pleasure to have members of the local First United Methodist Church youth group in attendance, and to chat with them more after the Q&A. It’s young people like them who can inspire a generation of young people to throw starfish and make a difference in their own communities.

Augusta, Georgia - Tuesday, March 17, 2015
On the banks of the historic Savannah River in Augusta, Georgia, lies the Morris Museum of Art, the third stop on our tour. Director Kevin Grogan and Michelle Schulte, Curator of Education, were gracious hosts! Even though it was St. Patrick’s Day and over 80 degrees outside, it didn’t stop a highly engaged audience from attending our screening.

Katie Stagliano’s story was especially moving to the seniors in the audience - always so uplifting to see how a young girl can inspire older adults to work for positive change in their communities. Being that Katie lives just a few hours to the East in Summerville, SC, there was definitely some southern pride in the room.

Hanceville, Alabama - Thursday, March 19, 2015
The last stop for The Starfish Throwers on the tour was the small Alabama town of Hanceville. Wallace State Community College and its Burrow Center are top-notch facilities! Staff writer Russell Moore and the whole team at Wallace State (Gail, Jesse, Stefany) helped run two very smooth screenings, one in the morning and one in the early evening.

Most impressive, though, were the students of Wallace State. I had the pleasure to chat with many of them after the morning screening—hearing about how they themselves throw starfish, and how inspired they are to begin lives in which they do just that through their future work as doctors, nurses, and artists. Young people like these definitely give me hope that the future has good things in store for all of us.

On the Road with Michael Glover and Robyn Rosenkrantz from Go with Le Flo

From Michael Glover (writer, director, musician) and Robyn Rosenkrantz (producer, musician) from Go with Le Flo:

We’re so grateful to have shared our new film Go with Le Flo and our Bright Blue Gorilla music on the Southern Circuit tour. Our film was shot in Berlin and is a German & French romantic comedy with English subtitles.  Right before we landed in Atlanta, we had a great 3 month tour doing concerts and screenings all around Europe. We were curious to see how the film would play in the South.  Some of the audiences had never seen a Foreign film. The audiences were enthusiastic and many left very inspired. Here’s what happened…

 - Robyn and Michael

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November 5, 2014
Clemson University
Clemson, SC

Before we drove from Atlanta, GA to our first show at Clemson University in South Carolina, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to try some Southern food! We stopped off at the Flying Biscuit and got our fill of the creamiest grits we’d ever had. We had a great vegetarian breakfast of fried green tomatoes, veggie sausage, eggs, whole wheat biscuits with apple-cranberry butter and super tender collard greens. We don’t get this type of food in Los Angeles!

Great restaurant in Atlanta, GA

Michael and Robyn enjoying the Southern Food!

Eggs, Veggie Sausage, Fried Green Tomatoes, and the creamiest grits ever!

We stopped off at the South Carolina Welcome center and were inspired by the beautiful fall leaves.

Beautiful Fall leaves in South Carolina

Before the show, Amy Monaghan, a professor from Clemson University met us for a Mexican Dinner to welcome us. Then we headed over to the nice auditorium.  It was an interesting mix of film studies, language, and geography students. They all stayed for the Q&A and asked some great questions. One of the students wrote an amazing Go with Le Flo review on IMDB! We spoke with one young student after the show who had dreams to become a producer. She was very inspired and had tons of questions. We really enjoy sharing the wealth of knowledge we’ve picked up along the way. Our motto is to just dive in and create, learn by doing. No matter how many mistakes you make, if you just keep going and don’t give up, your movies are going to get better and better.

Clemson University has some history!

Outside of Clemson University Auditorium

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November 9, 2014
Winder Cultural Arts Center
Winder, GA

Our second show was at Winder Cultural Arts center. We drove some lovely back roads to get there and really enjoyed seeing the farms, Baptist churches with their inspiring quotes (Get Rich Quick…Count Your Blessings!) and wooden houses with their big front porches. Don Wildsmith and Christopher Childs gave us a super warm welcome with real Southern hospitality. The local press ran a half page story with photos, which is always nice. The auditorium was lovely and had a vintage feel to it. They also do lots of theater there, so the stage was perfect for our Bright Blue Gorilla concert before the film. Christopher, being a filmmaker himself, asked intelligent questions as he led the Q&A, he had done his homework, which made it really inspiring for us. The audience had a great sense of humor and were laughing freely during our music set and super loud during the Go with Le Flo screening. We always watch our films with the audiences and the Winder audience had us laughing out loud, even though we've see our film 100 times! Afterwards they had some great brownies and punch, which made for a cozy atmosphere to mingle with the audience. We had our CDs and DVDs with us and also some French Lavender from the real Le Flo store in Berlin, and many kind audience members took some home.

Winder made a nice Go with Le Flo poster

Go with Le Flo pre-show test

Go with Le Flo pre-show test looking good!

We found it!

Bright Blue Gorilla movies and music storefront at Winder Cultural Center

Bright Blue Gorilla on the wonderful Winder stage

Q & A with Christoper Childs

The wonderful Winder staff

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November 11, 2014
Morris Museum of Art
Augusta, GA

There was a beautiful entry hall at the Morris Museum of Art right next to the screening room, made us feel like we were in a movie, which was the perfect atmosphere for our concert and screening. We set up a table in the screening room with our Bright Blue Gorilla CDs, DVDs and French Lavender from the real Le Flo store in Berlin. Before we even started our show, a super friendly film professor from the local college came up to our table and bought some French Lavender. Nice way to start off the night! He brought a few of his film students. The rest of the audience were locals. The audience sang along during our concert, which made us feel very welcome. One of our songs, “Napoleon’s Coat” is about a guy who works in a museum, so we had fun singing that one! There were around 27 people, all laughing and enjoying Go with Le Flo. They asked great questions and our Le Flo lavender was just about sold out!

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November 13, 2014
Wallace State Community College
Hanceville, AL

Our last concert and screening was at the beautiful brand new auditorium on the campus of Wallace State Community College. It reminded us of the lovely concert halls in Europe. When we walked in we noticed two big Go with Le Flo posters and some really nice fliers. It’s always great when a venue does promo. Kristen Holmes was a great host and made sure we had everything we needed. They had some yummy snacks for the audience and very refreshing lemon water, which hit the spot after our 3 1/2 hour drive. The acoustics were perfect for our unplugged concert. The audience was made up of students and the local community. It was a joy to hear them laughing loudly. One of the students noticed we watched Go with Le Flo with them and she really liked that and found it inspiring. The audience asked great questions as usual and hung out after, made us feel very welcome. They liked that we made family friendly comedies and many hugged us goodbye!

On the Road with 'Mona Lisa is Missing'

From Joe Medeiros (Writer/Director) & Justine Mestichelli Medeiros (Producer) 
of Mona Lisa is Missing.
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As filmmakers, being selected for a festival as prestigious as South Arts' Southern Circuit was an honor. We are truly grateful that the selection committee appreciated our film's appeal to its audience. We have traveled with our film to numerous festivals, and we are so impressed with the professionalism, organization and respectful treatment of filmmaker needs that Teresa Hollingsworth and her team at South Arts provided for us.     

We started our travels in Augusta, Georgia at the Morris Museum of Art. Michelle Schulte, Curator of Education and Kevin Grogan, Executive Director and Chief Curator were most accommodating and gracious hosts. And we found the Morris Museum itself to be quite a treat with an impressive collection of local Southern art.  We also learned something new -- that telegraph inventor Samuel B. Morse was a portrait painter of some admirable talent.  Our screening was very well attended. The applause was plentiful and the Q&A lively.  

Onto Clemson University where Professor Amy Monaghan treated us to dinner and introduced us to faculty and local  filmmakers. We had a very respectable turnout of students (on a school night). They really appreciated the humor and animation that infuse our film and gives lives life to our extensive research and Peruggia's life story. Their questions were thoughtful.

Over 200 students and local residents turned out for the morning presentation of Mona Lisa is Missing at Wallace State Community College's Evelyn Burrows Center for the Fine and Performing Arts in Hanceville, Alabama. Our evening screening drew another 50 enthusiastic viewers. Kristen Holmes, Communications and Marketing Director, and her team were full of Southern Hospitality.  The audience was appreciative of the Peruggia family's genuine acceptance of the truth about Vincenzo's motivation for taking the Mona  Lisa.


Our final destination was the Winder Cultural Arts Center in Winder, Georgia. Don Wildsmith,  Director of  Cultural Events and Christopher Childs, Station Manager of  Winder Television, created an audience-friendly environment where the Q&A prompted the comment,  "I came to this documentary screening with some trepidation because docs can be dense with information but yours was so entertaining while being thoroughly informative."

All in all, the Southern Circuit was one of the greatest experiences we've had showing our film. It was fitting that our tour took place during Major League baseball playoffs because with our screenings at the Morris Museum, Clemson University, Wallace State, and in Winder, we not only batted 4-for-4, but each hit was a home run.

Thank you all and best of luck in the future. Your festival, your audiences, and your people behind the scenes are truly the best.

Noah Harald & Speak Now - Winder, GA, Micro-budget Filmmaking Part IV

The final update from filmmaker Noah Harald, who toured his film Speak Now on the Southern Circuit:

As I screen our film 'Speak Now' at the next four venues in the Southern Circuit I'm going to try something interesting and share my thoughts and advice about making a micro-budget improv film as well as my travels here in the South. Fourth and final screening- Winder, GA.

I had a few days off and spent them on Lake Oconee in GA for a few days and it was beautiful bliss. Got to fish under an incredible sunset and feel amazingly lucky to be alive and in the south. 'Speak Now' screened last night at the Winder Cultural Arts Center, and it was a great screening. Pretty robust turnout and a very diverse crowd. People enjoyed the film and had a ton of questions. Don Wildsmith ran the Q&A, and though he was a self-professed 'tech' he had great questions. It was a pleasure to chat with everyone about the film. After the screening, the cultural arts center had a reception and I got to meet and speak with some of the crowd. Awesome experience. The thing that has struck me most about screening the film in the south is that I think I had a preconception about how it would land with audiences. I thought that the lesbians and the closeted gay character and the movie about young people and failed marriages wouldn't ring as true as it did with intellectual film festival audiences and our friends in New York and LA. I was proven completely wrong. From young college age kids to retirees everyone appreciated and engaged with the film. It was eye-opening for me and a total re-education of my own beliefs about people in the south. I'm so appreciative it was an experience I got to have.

Making a micro-budget film, Part IV: Releasing your film into the wild
This is the hardest part. On many levels. One, you have to let people see your film, judge it as a film and watch it without disclaimers or cautions. Two, there are so many films being made now that finding an audience is harder than ever. The good news is the audience for indie films has never been hungrier and there have never been easier ways to reach them. I'm gonna outline the important things to think about and how we tackled (or failed to tackle) those issues- feel free to do your own research on how to tackle them yourself but know that I'm giving you a roadmap of obstacles.

1. Submit to and attend film festivals. Budget yourself several thousand dollars for this. Festival fees range from 25-150 bucks depending on the festival and the sheer numbers of films being submitted means your micro-budget indie with non name actors really has to stick out. Sometimes it will be lost in the crowd, sometimes it will be under-appreciated but eventually it will find it's home. We were rejected from at least a dozen smaller film festivals before we were accepted by the very prestigious Austin Film Festival, where we premiered and ultimately took home the Write/Rec Audience Award. If we had given up after the rejection of the smaller ones, we would never have gone on to play Austin, Atlanta and the many others culminating with the Southern Filmmakers Tour. Be persistent, have a great hook and count your lucky stars- you will find the right home.

2. Release the film! Sounds easy enough, right. RIGHT! In the best of all worlds a distributor will come to you at your Sundance premiere and buy the worldwide rights for a ton of money. But in the likely chance that this doesn't happen, you can release the film yourself. We aggregated with a company called Quiver, which for a small fee puts in the legwork and applications to get your film on digital platforms. We chose to go with iTunes and GooglePlay, and our film is currently available there. We also put the film on VHX, which is a newer on demand platform that you can name your price as well as connect with the audience of buyers. It's also a great way to fulfill digital downloads for your crowdfunding backers. If you've been following along and haven't seen our film, you can go to VHX and purchase the deluxe edition now for only 4.99 with the code SOUTHARTS at https://speaknow.vhx.tv/buy/speak-now-deluxe-edition

3. Marketing. We are still trying to figure this out. The most important thing is to keep interacting with your fans. Twitter and Facebook are great tools for this, local press and ads may work, though we won't know what kind of conversion we can get until after a few months of working it. Make sure when you raise money you set money aside for this. No matter what you've spent on the film, you must spend money here if you want to reach an audience beyond your facebook friends. It's not an exact science, and there's so much research you can do and get lost in, but plan for this step.

4. Enjoy the ride. You made a film. You created a piece of art and now you're part of the conversation. What a beautiful thing. Thankfully there are people who crave the kind of art being created outside of the normal channels and no matter what happens, you made a film. Thanks for following along, and thank you so much to South Arts for creating this opportunity and having an agenda to spread the cinematic arts through the south. Cheers everyone.

Joel Fendelman - Hanceville, Winder, Chattahoochee Hills

The latest update from Joel Fendelman, touring his film David on the Southern Circuit:

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Hanceville's performing arts center

Hanceville, Winder and Chattahoochee Hills were the last three stops of my Southern Arts Tour. Before coming on this trip I had not heard of any of these places, in fact most people I spoke to had not either. Hanceville was a small town  of about 3,000 people with a church on every corner. The film showed at a beautiful performing arts center that was donated by some local philanthropists.

The turnout was small and it was probably the least enthusiastic Q/A but the townspeople who showed up were very unique in their own way. I could tell many of them probably have not been far away from their town their whole lives so seeing a film that takes places in New York about Muslim and Jewish families might of been throwing a lot at them. I remember particularly the face of one woman who must of been in her sixties and even though she was very quiet she thanked me in such a sincere way for making the film that I knew that a quiet response didn't necessarily mean any less engaged.

I traveled then to Serenbe, a newly formed community based on sustainable principles.(combining of words Serenity + Be) It's only 30 miles south of Atlanta but was such beautiful farm country that it could have been a thousand miles away.

Serenbe

The filmed showed in a small banquet like room to a very enthusiastic almost full house. The audience had immediate insightful questions to ask. My host at the center moderated with much preparation and the talkback lasted for a nice long while. The next morning I was invited to an interfaith gathering where I saw some of the attendees from the previous night.

Winder Cultural Arts Center

My last stop was at Winder, Georgia, a small town about 40 miles north of Atlanta. It was a nice eclectic group of residents who trickled in until the film began. Everyone stayed for the Q/A. My host who also moderated had such personality and created quite a nice atmosphere. I feel blessed to have been able to see this part of the country showing my film and meeting the nicest of people. Living the dream!

Winder Cultural Arts Center

Vivienne Roumani - Winder and Augusta

Here's the latest update from Vivienne Roumani, currently touring her film Out of Print:

Great to see musicians and composers Jerry and Marlene Tachoir, parents of Erica Tachoir, a major contributor to Out of Print. Talent runs in families. Gallatin, TN.

I am bringing my film, my story to places in the South where I have never been, and I am receiving stories from the fascinating people here, about themselves and their cities and architecture.

Long story short: Screening at the Winder Cultural Arts Center, Winder, Georgia.

Don Wildsmith, my host in Winder, is a founding member of the Winder-Barrow Community Theatre and has been very active in all things theatrical, from education to technology, design, acting, directing, dancing –world-wide. This in addition to serving 30 years with the United States Navy.

Chris Childs, moderating the Q&A, is the editor/producer of Winder TV. Chris is a filmmaker and a former New Yorker.

I took Don’s advice and stayed close to the Atlanta airport to avoid morning rush hour in Atlanta.  I was on an early flight to Augusta, Georgia, where, after landing, I asked how much time to allow to get to the airport in the morning.  I was told there was no rush hour.  When was the last time you heard that?

Augusta was a revelation. Take a peek at the glorious Lookaway Inn, and see if you can spot Scarlett. The river walk is unforgettable, especially at this time of year. The city has galleries, the Morris Museum of Art, where the screening was held, and historic homes --and a great bookstore, which was right to the point of Out of Print.

Book Tavern owner David Hutchison is not posing. I interrupted his work and asked for a smile when I stumbled into this little gem. He came to the screening and brilliantly contributed to the discussion.

The glorious Lookaway Inn, Scarlett?

The River Walk

Morris Museum of Art. The audience at the screening at the Morris Museum was an engaged, lively group – a pleasure for Q&As. 

Around the River Walk I found this. Did you guess it? The Marriott Hotel, Augusta, GA.

Next time, I’ll bring my husband instead of just his beautiful anniversary flowers that were waiting for me at the Lookaway Inn.